


Sweet Little Lies

by sophie_evelyn



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: AU, F/F, Fluff, Liar Liar - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-06
Updated: 2018-09-06
Packaged: 2019-07-02 00:06:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 20,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15784920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sophie_evelyn/pseuds/sophie_evelyn
Summary: Henry is sick and tired of all of the lies that his mothers' tell one another. On his birthday he makes a wish that his parents stop lying and when it comes true all kinds of chaos ensues. Will Emma and Regina be able to overcome their differences and work together or will their honesty only draw them further apart?A no magic AU of sorts.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HufflepuffLovesPizza](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HufflepuffLovesPizza/gifts), [misthavens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misthavens/gifts).
  * Inspired by [sweet little lies {art}](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15759930) by [misthavens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misthavens/pseuds/misthavens). 



> Firstly a big thank you to the creators of SQSN, it's been a great experience participating in this challenge and having an excuse to write something different to what I usually would write.
> 
> A huge thank you to my talented artist, Jess. I am SO happy that I got to work with you and your artwork has truly blown me away. 
> 
> A massive thank you to the best cheerleader ever, Laura. You helped me every step of the way and I couldn't have done this without you. You listened to me rant and worry and you were always there to support me with your funny gifs!
> 
> Thank you to Sarah, who saved me by catching all of my typos and grammar hiccups! 
> 
> And thank you to everybody reading this, I really hope that you enjoy this fic!

Henry Mills glanced up at the large Marvel calendar that resided on his bedroom wall and smiled to himself as he realized it was less than a week until his eleventh birthday. Being ten had been pretty great, not only had he found his birth mother but he had also, somehow, convinced her to move closer to him and to play a role in his own life. It hadn’t been easy and there was a lot of stubbornness from both of his mothers’ but now it seemed that everything between them was okay, not good, but okay.

Regina had always been open with Henry, ever since he was little, and had never hidden the fact that he had been adopted. She didn’t, however, give him any information about his birth parents; she had originally planned on saving those details until he was eighteen, Henry, however, had other ideas. With the help of the internet and rummaging in the attic through mountains of paperwork he had found out the name and current address of his birth mother: Emma Swan.

It hadn’t taken him long to find the quickest and cheapest route to get to her and one night he had turned up on her doorstep. To say that Emma had been surprised would have been an understatement and the first thing that she had done was ask him a million questions and drive him straight back to Regina’s house.

Henry had been immediately sent to his bedroom while his mothers, he’d assumed, discussed a whole bunch of adult stuff. He wasn’t entirely sure what it was that made Emma stay but every day he was thankful that she had. Regina and Emma were perhaps the two best mothers any kid could ever ask for. They seemed to balance each other out perfectly without either of them ever realizing it.

It had now been a little over six months since Emma had moved to Storybrooke. She was apartment sharing with Mary Margaret Blanchard whom she had befriended within only split seconds of moving there. Henry still found that whole set up a little odd seeing as Miss Blanchard was his teacher but he was slowly getting used to seeing her outside of school as well as during it.

Storybrooke was a ridiculously small town and it was the kind of town in which everybody knew everybody and so a newcomer coming into town from seemingly nowhere had proven to be a big deal to just about everyone. Emma had been the talk of the town for quite some weeks before she had finally settled in.

For those first few weeks Regina, who was also the Mayor of that small town, had despised Emma Swan. Emma had been the blonde haired, red leather wearing, always painfully optimistic tornado who loved nothing more than to create chaos in her life. Stealing her son’s time and breaking his curfews, disrupting her peaceful neighbourhood with that noisy excuse of a car of hers and ultimately confusing her entirely because for some reason she could never seem to keep that stupidly obnoxious grin of hers out of her mind.

She had been determined to get Emma to leave town until she had seen how much joy she had brought to Henry. He seemed to have a new lease of life which he hadn’t had before and an endless energy which had only been maximised when in the presence of that blonde tornado.

One thing that Regina had promised herself when she had signed Henry’s adoption papers was to never hurt him and she knew that if she banished Emma Swan from her town then Henry would have been heartbroken. And thus, she was stuck with her.

“Henry?” Regina called from the kitchen after setting a pile of freshly made blueberry pancakes onto the kitchen table.

Within seconds she could hear the familiar pitter-patter of hasty footsteps bouncing down the staircase. “Morning, Mom.” Henry grinned and gave her a hug as he did every morning; his stomach rumbling as he inhaled the smell of freshly baked goodies.

He sat down and doused his pancakes in syrup to which Regina had to try her best to keep from tutting at. He had never liked syrup before Emma had introduced him to it. He took a bite which was shortly followed by a satisfied groan. “Is Emma still coming over for dinner tonight? I want to show her my new comic book.” He asked upon swallowing his first mouthful.

Regina tensed at even the mention of Emma’s name. She had purposely forgotten to ask Emma to attend their dinner that night and she really had no desire for her to come over. She had only invited Emma over for dinner once before and it had been reasonably okay until Henry had fallen asleep on the couch and Regina had had to make pleasant small talk with her until the end of the movie which they’d been watching. That night she had learnt that Emma Swan had a preference for bear claws, fluffy socks and ‘always rooting for the Disney villain because they were always the hottest character”.  After that discussion, it was safe for her to say that she and Emma were worlds apart from one another.

“Emma is unable to attend I’m afraid. She said something about car trouble. It seems that monstrosity of a car has finally given up on the world.” Regina rolled her eyes as she thought of that yellow tin can that Emma insisted on driving everywhere. Sooner or later she _would_ end up having car trouble, probably in the way of it collapsing entirely.

Henry sighed disappointedly, knowing full well that Regina hadn’t even asked her. "What about tomorrow?” He asked, a small sticky gloop of syrup beginning to trickle down his chin as he spoke.

Regina shook her head before even coming up with a reason as to why Emma would not be coming over for dinner again. She occupied herself by finding a napkin and handing it to Henry before she mustered up a somewhat believable lie. “Emma’s going out for drinks with Miss Blanchard.”

Henry frowned and dabbed at his chin with the napkin. “But it’s a school night. Miss Blanchard never goes out on a school night.”

Regina placed her hands on her hips. “It’s a special occasion.” She confirmed and hoped that Henry would drop the subject altogether.

Henry sighed, he could tell that his mom was lying but he was much too polite to call her out on it. “What about the Friday after school? Can we all go to the docks?”

“Henry.” Regina said firmly which made Henry pause for a second before speaking again.

"I thought you guys were friends now?” He asked and looked up hopefully at Regina who was looking out of the window trying as hard as she could to keep her mind off of Emma Swan.

Of course, keeping her mind off of Emma was nearly impossible with Henry talking about her 24/7. “Just because I no longer want to kill Miss Swan it does by no means mean that we are friends.” She answered and of course, Emma chose that very moment to appear outside her window, skipping up her driveway as if she had no cares in the world.

“She’s still coming to my birthday party this weekend though, isn’t she?” He asked and swallowed another lump of pancake covered syrup.

“I believe so.” Regina nodded but hadn’t really heard the question as she had already started to walk to the door which she knew Emma would knock on five hundred times if she took any longer than five seconds to answer it.

“Hi, Regina.” Emma beamed as she felt the warmth from the mansion sweep over her. She always felt a little weird when talking to Regina so she would often put on her ‘friendly, helpful Sheriff Swan’ voice to disguise any such awkwardness on her part.

“Miss Swan,” Regina responded much less breezily and held the door open for Emma to enter which she did only too quickly.

As soon as Henry had heard Emma’s voice he had come bounding across the room and attacked her with his sticky fingers, pulling her into a tight hug as he did so.

“Kid, you literally got syrup all over me!” She moaned but her annoyance was short lived as she returned the hug and ruffled his hair for good measure.

Regina watched on from the side, feeling entirely like a third wheel. She cleared away Henry’s plate from the table if only to keep herself from feeling like a spare part.

“Have you got your stuff ready for school?” Emma asked once Henry had finally unattached himself from her.

“My book bag’s upstairs. I’ll get it!” He called and raced up the stairs before Emma had a chance to say anything further.

“Make sure to clean your teeth!” Regina shouted in the direction that Henry had run off to. She glanced over at Emma and gave her a polite smile before turning her back to her once again and filling the dishwasher.

Emma placed her hands into the back pockets of her jeans and hoped that Henry would be as quick as he possibly could be. “Do you want some help with that?” She asked as she heard the clatter of dishes coming from Regina’s direction.

Regina sighed and slammed the dishwasher shut a little more forcefully than she had originally intended. “I don’t need any more of your help,” she said under her breath before turning back to Emma.

Emma wasn’t sure whether Regina had meant for her to hear that answer or not but she had and it had annoyed her. “I think I’m gonna wait for Henry outside.” She said, no longer wanting to be around that weird energy which was currently suffocating her.

“Oh, Miss Swan?” Regina walked across the kitchen to reach Emma before she left the building.

“It’s Emma, we’ve been through this.” She huffed, not having the patience to deal with _this_ side of Regina at such an early hour of the morning.

Regina ignored her, “there’s no need to walk Henry home from school today. I have a half day so I’ll be meeting him myself.”

Emma shrugged, not wanting to start an argument despite their arrangement being that she walked Henry to and from school every weekday. “Sure, no problem. I’ll see ya around, Regina.” She said before waiting outside until Henry was ready to leave. Emma leaned against the white pillar of the mansion as she waited for Henry. Regina confused her so much, one day she could be pleasant to her, almost sweet. And then the next day she could be the complete opposite. She knew their situation wasn’t ideal but sometimes she wished that she could just understand the other woman.

Her thoughts about Regina came to a grinding halt when once again she found herself being attacked by an energetic 10-year-old. “Save some of that energy for school.” She laughed and chased after him as he raced down the gravel path.

Henry waited for Emma to catch up with him before they continued on the journey to the school gates at a gentler, steadier pace. Henry was silent for a while as he considered whether he wanted to go through with his plan or not. He had decided while brushing his teeth, that he would invite Emma to dinner as Regina seemed incapable of doing so herself.

“Do you want to come over for dinner tonight? Mom’s making lasagna and she always makes way too much for two people.” He asked hopefully, even though he remained doubtful that Emma would agree to attend. She, too, seemed to be making a habit of lying just to avoid spending time with Regina.

Emma looked down towards Henry, a small smile painted on her lips. “Sorry, kid. I can’t today.”

“Why not?” He pouted, making sure that he gave the same grilling to Emma as he had previously given to Regina.

“I… um, I’ve gotta work.” She stumbled and started to stare off into the distance so as not to make any eye contact with her disappointed son.

Henry folded his arms; his moms’ really were just as bad as one another. “Mom said it was because you had car trouble.”

Emma stopped in her tracks and looked down towards Henry. “Yeah, that too.” She replied, her eyebrow still arched at what Henry had said. She certainly had not received an invitation from Regina.

Henry shrugged before the two of them continued the short walk to school. He had had enough of his mothers’ now, if only he could make them see just how stupid they were being. He was certain that if they spent some real time together then they would get on quite well but both of them seemed to prefer the avoidance of any real conversation and instead chose to lie to both him and to one another. It seemed that it was up to him to fix his mothers’ relationship, he had no idea how he was going to go about doing that but at this point, he would try anything.


	2. Chapter 2

“Where is Miss Swan?” Regina practically grunted as she balanced a plate of brownies in one hand and a bowl of fruit punch in another. She placed each item down onto the large table which was situated at the end of her backyard.

“I think she’s on her way.” Mary Margaret replied as she stuck another handful of balloons onto the door frame. She was regretting volunteering to help set up Henry’s birthday party, especially as Regina had spent most of the time moaning about Emma’s tardiness.

Regina tutted and rearranged each item on the table to make it appear less crowded. “You said that an hour ago.”

“She’ll be here, Regina.” Mary Margaret took a deep breath and glanced down at her watch, it wouldn’t be long until the kids started to arrive. Maybe she should call Emma again.

Regina rolled her eyes; she knew she shouldn’t have asked Emma to help out. She had only done so because Henry had begged her to; the same Henry who had been in the living room playing video games with David Nolan for the past hour. “This is typical of her. She won’t do any of the hard work but then she’ll sweep in here with some awful present and Henry will be doting on her for the rest of the week.”

Mary Margaret pulled her cell phone out of her pocket, “I’m going to call her again.” She couldn’t bear to here Regina’s moaning any longer.

“No, I will call her.” Regina protested and pulled out her own cell phone finding Emma’s name in her contact list almost immediately. It seemed she really needed to call other people other than Emma Swan because she was currently the person that she had called last on the previous three occasions.

Regina started to pace while she waited for an answer, reluctantly giving up when she heard the voicemail tone. “What is the point of having a cell phone if you don’t answer it?” Regina huffed and stormed inside to bring out the remainder of the party food. Mary Margaret watched on, not daring to utter another word in Emma’s defense. She hoped that Emma had a good excuse for not being there because she had a feeling that Regina was not going to let her off the hook lightly.

Regina’s mood had perked up significantly since seeing the excitement on Henry’s face. After a long process of deciding what he had wanted to do for his birthday, he had settled on having a simple birthday party in his backyard. Regina had been thrilled with this idea as it meant that she could make sure that every detail was correct and there would be little interference from any third parties. She had originally planned on setting up the party herself until Henry had eagerly volunteered Emma to help and somehow Mary Margaret and David had also been dragged into these plans. Regina watched with a smile on her face as Henry jumped on the bounce house with a group of his friends. She sighed a little sadly as she realized that her little boy wasn’t so little anymore and this year may be one of the last years that he would be interested in having a bounce house at his birthday party.

Regina’s wistfulness was drawn to a sudden close when she saw Emma bustling through the yard carrying a large box tied with a ribbon which was almost the size of her own being. Regina glared and made a beeline for the blonde before Henry had a chance to see her. “You’ve finally graced us with your presence then.” She greeted sarcastically and took the present from Emma’s hands and placed it onto the table with the rest of the gifts.

Emma put her hands into the back pockets of her jeans, avoiding any eye contact with Regina and instead looking over her shoulder to admire the party that was going on behind her. “Yeah, sorry about that. Work emergency.”

“Really?” Regina pouted, not fully convinced by Emma’s excuse. “And what was this work emergency exactly?”

“Pongo got stuck in a tree, Archie was going crazy. He’s safe and sound now though.” Emma lied as coolly as she could, she had made up this particular lie on the way over there, knowing that Regina wouldn’t accept the real reason as to why she was late.

Regina rolled her eyes, “That’s funny, Miss Swan. I was unaware that dogs could climb trees.”

Emma frowned slightly and figured the only thing that she could do was change the subject before she dug herself even further into a hole. “So, where’s Henry?”

Regina turned away from Emma and saw Henry talking to Mary Margaret. Emma too, had caught her eye line and had already started heading over to them before Regina could even utter a response. She glared at Emma as she watched her bounce over to their son while she made her way to the adult drinks table. Never had she needed a glass of wine more than she did at that moment.

Emma had barely taken a few steps before she was met with an even more excitable than usual Henry. He leaped into her arms and she had no other option than to catch him. “Happy birthday, kid!” She yelled through laughter and spun Henry around in her arms before she let him go.

“Thanks! Can you come and jump on the bounce house with us?” He asked excitedly before reclaiming his cup of juice from Mary Margaret.

“Sure, I love those things.” She replied before turning to Mary Margaret who was giving her that look which she often saved for her disruptive students.

“Where were you?” She whispered, “Regina was going crazy!” She looked over to Henry who was now talking animatedly to two girls from his class.

Emma tried not to laugh but a smirk still managed to make itself known. “I was sleeping, it’s Saturday.”

Mary Margaret frowned. “Your door was open this morning. Where were you sleeping?” She asked suspiciously.

Emma leaned in a little closer to her friend. “I might have had a sleepover at Graham’s again.”

“Emma!” Mary Margaret gasped which caused a number of children to look over in their direction. Mary Margaret lowered her voice, once more, not wanting to create a scene. “I thought you two were over?”

Emma shrugged. “We are. I was just a little lonely, it’s no big deal.”

“Sex is always a big deal.”

“Only if there’s feelings involved. And I, for sure don’t have any feelings for Graham.”

“What did you tell Regina?” Mary Margaret asked and Henry, who was still talking with his friends, suddenly left their conversation and instead began to listen in on the one happening between the adults beside him.

“I didn’t tell her that obviously. I made up some lie about work. Dogs can climb trees, right?” Emma asked, she really should have researched more.

Henry sighed as he heard what Emma had said; it seemed that his moms’ really did spend more time lying to one another than telling the truth. He let his friends drag him back to the bounce house; he would have to talk to Emma later.

Mary Margaret chuckled and shook her head. “Was that really the best thing you could come up with?”

“I thought it was pretty creative.” Emma shrugged. “I didn’t miss the cake did I?”

Mary Margaret shook her head, “Not yet, Regina said she’s going to do the cake after lunch.”

Emma smiled; it seemed she had timed her arrival well. She noticed Henry running over to the bounce house, “I’m gonna get my bounce on.” She grinned at Mary Margaret childishly before racing over to join Henry.

After ten minutes of preparing the cake and somehow managing to pull Emma away from the bounce house, Regina was ready for the moment that she was most looking forward to. “You have the camera, don’t you?” She asked Emma as she cautiously lifted the cake out of its box.

“I have my cell camera?” Emma frowned slightly, not knowing what exactly Regina had meant.

Regina just sighed, “You can light the candles.”

“Sure,” Emma followed behind Regina who had adopted a ridiculously slow walk while she carried the cake outside. “This turned out pretty good, did you make it yourself?”

“Yes, I always make Henry’s birthday cakes. It’s a tradition.” She replied, her hands gripped tightly onto the plate which held the cake.

Emma smiled, she loved finding out little things about Henry’s life which she had missed due to her absence. “That’s nice,” she whispered, picturing all of the weird and wonderful variations of cake that Regina could have created in the past.

Once they were outside and everyone was gathered around the center table, Emma leaned forward and slowly lit each candle on the cake. The yard fell almost silent as each child watched in awe as the flames danced around poetically but the silence was shortly broken as a chorus of voices began to sing the familiar tune of ‘Happy Birthday’. Henry had taken his position behind the cake and grinned happily as everyone’s attention fell on him. Regina stood beside him and made sure to keep him from blowing out the candles until Emma had taken half a dozen photos of him grinning behind the cake. Once she was satisfied that Emma had successfully taken the photos she motioned for Henry to go ahead. “Don’t forget to make a wish.” She whispered in his ear and took a step backward. 

Henry looked at the cake with a beaming smile. He then looked at Regina who was watching him lovingly and Emma who had moved to stand beside her and she was also looking at him with a warm love in her eyes. He smiled at them both before closing his eyes knowing exactly what it was that he was going to wish for.

“I wish my moms’ would stop lying.” He whispered and glanced at each of them in turn.

Henry took a deep breath before blowing out the candles in one big puff. Applause filled the air once he had finished and Regina immediately guarded the cake from any wandering hands.

It didn’t take long for the sun to begin to set and slowly children were being picked up by their parents. Mary Margaret and David had left the very second after the last child had been picked up; they knew that if they stuck around any longer then Regina would make them help with the tidy up procedure.

Emma had been watching as Regina was saying her goodbyes to David and Mary Margaret and she had come up with a fun idea that she knew Regina would be against had she been aware of it. “Okay, kid. Go!” She called to Henry, who instantly left the present table and sprinted over to the bounce house, diving onto it as quickly as he could.

Emma rushed around to the side of the inflatable and pulled out the air tank before swiftly running around and leaping onto the quickly deflating house. “Timber!” Henry yelled at the top of his lungs as the structure of the house disintegrated and continued to collapse on top of them.

A combination of screams and giggles caught Regina’s attention from the other side of the backyard and she turned around to find a colorful pile of material which once had resembled a house. She then saw Henry clambering on top of the mountain and she sighed dramatically while walking over to rescue her son. “Henry Daniel Mills, get out of there this instant!”

Henry snapped his head around to face Regina, a look of guilt covering his face. “Sorry, mom,” he said but couldn’t wipe the grin from his face when he heard Emma struggling around underneath the house.

“Oh, hey Regina,” Emma smirked as she popped her head up from out of a piece of yellow material. Henry giggled as he stumbled off of the inflatable and stood beside Regina.

Regina tutted upon seeing Emma, “I should have known you were behind this. Heaven forbid you act like an adult for once.”

Emma was still smirking and she messily stood up from out of the surprisingly heavy pile of material. “It’s just a bit of fun, you should try it sometime. You’re so uptight.” Emma’s eyes widened, she hadn’t meant to say that last part out loud.

Regina glared at her, “I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Emma shrugged, at least she wouldn’t have to help tidy up. “Whatever, see ya later Henry.” She gave him a hug which he tightened to an unbelievable level and she squeezed back affectionately. He finally released her and she looked up at Regina who was pretending to ignore her despite still remaining in her eye line. “Bye, Regina.”

Regina didn’t acknowledge Emma but watched her as she walked out of the backyard. Henry sighed to himself as he looked between Emma’s receding form and the angry twitch of Regina’s brows, would his parents ever get along?


	3. Chapter 3

Henry had awoken with an abundance of energy and he had raced down the stairs as soon as he had smelt the sweet scent of pancakes waft into his bedroom. Sunday mornings were usually saved for sleeping in late but for some reason, he had woken up even earlier than usual and, of course, Regina was already up and making breakfast for the two of them.

“Henry? You’re up early?” Regina called as Henry ran into the kitchen and attacked her from behind with a bear hug.

Henry nodded and took his seat at the table despite his pancakes still being at the early stages of being made. He looked around at the almost pristine kitchen and then glanced out of the window and found that the backyard was almost as spotless as it had been prior to his birthday party. “Have you cleaned up already?”

Regina smiled to herself, glad that her son had noticed her efforts. “You know how stressed I get if I go to bed while the house is a mess.”

Henry was impressed but also felt a little guilty that his mother had cleaned the entire backyard all by herself.  “Oh, I was going to get Ma to help you with it later.” He received an eye roll at that and Regina turned her back to him and made her way to the refrigerator.

Regina grasped the carton of orange juice and brought it over to the table. “I doubt your mother would have been any help, she prefers making messes rather than cleaning them up.”

Henry shook his head and poured some orange juice into his glass. “That’s not true, Ma helped with the bouncy house.”

“I wouldn’t call that helping but you two did look adorable trying to clamber out of that thing.”

Henry’s eyes bulged open theatrically and he had to do his very best not to choke on his juice. “What?” He gasped, not quite believing what he had just heard his mom say.

Regina had frozen; she had not meant to say that out loud, especially not in front of Henry.  “You looked adorable.” She tried to backtrack but she knew right away that Henry wasn’t going to buy that.

Henry had a grin on his face so large that it almost made Regina smile back at him despite her current predicament. “You said we both did.” He smirked and he knew that he had caught his mom out and that this very admission had changed just about everything that he thought he had known about his moms’ relationship.

“N… Yes, I mean…” Regina sputtered and for some reason, her denial was refusing to come out of her mouth.

“Don’t worry mom, your secret’s safe with me.” He chuckled cheekily as Regina remained red faced staring back at him in confusion. As much as he was enjoying the moment, he couldn’t help but feel a bit sorry for her, she had just given him the best ammunition of all time, after all. “So does that mean that you were up all night?” He asked, giving her a change of subject which he knew that she would be grateful for.

Regina nodded, “yes, I’m exhausted…” She bit her lip so as to stop talking, soon realizing that her filter had become non-existent all of a sudden.

Henry’s eyebrows rose once again, he had no doubt that his mom was exhausted however it was extremely unlike her to admit that, especially to him. He wondered why it was that Regina was acting in the way that she was, maybe it was because she was tired or maybe, just maybe it was because of that little birthday wish he had made.

He looked over at her once again, scrutinizing her behavior as she turned around to focus on the pancakes. She certainly didn’t look any different and apart from her two truth bombs she hadn’t been acting any differently either. He thought for a second, there was one way to find out whether his wish had really come true. “Mom, what do you really think about Miss Blanchard?”

“She’s an annoying busybody who interferes in business which doesn’t belong to her.” Regina breathed in deeply and bit down on her bottom lip so hard that she was surprised she didn’t draw any blood. She turned around to face Henry, “I did mean that.” She froze again, “I… I did mean that.”

Henry grinned, his wish had definitely worked. “It’s okay mom, I knew that you didn’t really like her.”

“Henry, I do-not…” She shook her head, trying to deny the fact was proving to be pointless. She raised her hand to her forehead and rubbed her temples, the lack of sleep was really hitting her hard that morning.

Henry remained smiling at the success of his plan; if Regina couldn’t lie then it meant that Emma was also in the same predicament.  He was due to meet up with Emma later that day for a birthday ice cream at Granny’s and he was even more excited now than he had been before.

* * *

Emma had already had quite the morning. She had just come off of the phone with Graham, he had asked her where she felt their relationship was going and instead of being vague like she usually was, she had unexpectedly told him just what she thought their ‘relationship’ had been. He had ended the call abruptly and she was certain that she wouldn’t be hearing from him again any time soon. Not only had she had an unsavory encounter with Graham, but she had also snapped at Mary Margaret for invading her privacy. This, again, had been extremely unlike her and she knew that she would need to do some serious groveling to get back into Mary Margaret’s good books.

She had just arrived at Granny’s and she saw Henry waiting for her at the counter. Regina must have dropped him off and part of her was thankful that she wasn’t going to have to deal with her because after the day that she was having God only knows what she would end up saying to her.

Henry’s head rose as soon as he heard the swing of the door and he tucked his cell phone in his pocket, an eager smile appearing as Emma sat down beside him. “Hey, Ma.” He smiled, “I already ordered us grilled cheese’s.”

Emma’s stomach rumbled upon hearing those words, her day starting to look up at the mention of one of her favorite foods. “Thanks, kid, I was craving some of Granny’s grilled cheese.”

“You always crave her grilled cheese,” Henry laughed and waited until Emma had gotten comfortable before he started with his interrogation. “Ma, how come you were late to my party yesterday?”

Emma looked at Henry, slightly caught off guard by the question. “I was at Graham’s, I mean...” Henry grinned and Emma bit down on her lip to stop any more confessions falling out.

“You told mom that you had a work emergency.”

“Yeah because your mom is crazy and woulda killed me if she knew where I really was.” Emma once again blurted out and was then greeted with a knowing smile from her son. “Don’t tell her I said that. I don’t even know why I said that,” she groaned and took a sip of her water that had been placed in front of her.

Henry watched her; it seemed that she too, had been affected by his wish. “It’s okay Ma, I prefer it when you don’t lie to me.”

Emma looked up and held her hands up defensively, “I do lie quite a bit.” She shook her head, “I mean, my lies are in your best interest sometimes.”

Emma was saved from more truth-telling by the arrival of their food and both mother and son were silent while they divulged in their favorite meal. It hadn’t taken Emma long to finish her food and she excused herself to go to the bathroom which gave Henry the perfect opportunity to pursue the next part of his plan.

Henry pulled out his cell phone from his pocket while Emma left to attend the bathroom. He knew that he would probably get into a lot of trouble for doing what he was about to do but he was desperate for his moms to interact with each other without lying for once. He texted Regina, asking for her to meet him at Granny’s, he knew that she would be there within mere minutes and he was excited to see just how honest his moms were about to be with one another.

Emma returned with a smile on her face, having no idea what Henry had just conspired. She had barely sat down when the door to Granny’s was flung open and a panicked Regina entered the café. She spotted Henry and Emma immediately. “Henry? What’s wrong? Why did you tell me to meet you here?”

“I wanted you to join us.” Henry smiled as innocently as he could and could see the baffled expression on Emma’s face out of the corner of his eye.

Regina placed a hand on her hip and lowered her voice considerably, “I told you that you only use that cell phone in emergencies.”

“This is an emergency!” He chimed and stretched his arms out dramatically.

“It is?” Emma asked, thoroughly confused by what was going on.

Regina looked toward the blonde for a split second and made sure that she had all limbs intact. “Did Emma do something idiotic again?”

“Um, Regina? I am here you know.” She waved at her, an irritated frown making itself known as she once again felt like Regina was belittling her.

“I’m aware, I spotted you right away.” Regina admitted and then immediately turned to Henry and acted as if she had never said anything.

Emma grinned; maybe Regina did like her a little more than she let on.  “Glad I caught your attention.”

Regina tutted, the arrogance of Emma was shocking. “Henry, why am I here?” She asked and again refused to acknowledge the blonde beside her.

“I wanted you guys to hang out. It’s my birthday.”

“Nice try, kid. It was your birthday yesterday.” Emma interjected and her eyes remained on Regina the entire time while she, once again tried to decipher how to act around her.

Regina turned to face Emma after hearing that response. “What’s wrong, Emma? Don’t you want to hang out with me?” Regina teased back and shocked even herself.

Of all the responses that Emma had imagined that Regina would give, that had been the very last. “Yeah, I mean, sure.” She choked back and wondered if Regina had hit her head or something because she was acting extremely out of character.

Henry grinned and pulled a stool closer for Regina to sit down on. “I knew you guys wanted to get to know each other better, sometimes you just need a push.”

Regina bit her lip, worried about what would come out if she opened her mouth. Emma wished that she had done the same but unfortunately for her, she had opened her mouth instead, “Kid, I love you but I don’t need a matchmaker. Besides Regina’s not really my type.”

Regina gasped, taking full offense to the comment. “And what is your type, Miss Swan? Fuckboys and losers? If that’s the case then I’m extremely happy that I am not your type.” She looked apologetically towards Henry, hoping that he wouldn’t pick up on her choice of candid language.

“Mom, I don’t think Emma meant it like that.” He said and tried to calm the situation before it got out of hand. His mothers were hard enough to control on the best of days but they proved to be even more difficult while under the influence of his wish.

“No, kid. Let your mom speak, she’s just continuing to prove how much of a snob she is.” Emma counteracted and couldn’t hold in the smirk that painted her lips when she saw that familiar vein start to pop out of Regina’s forehead.

“I do not need to be insulted especially by you." She glared at Emma and had to take a deep breath before she said something that she knew she would end up regretting. “I’ll see you at home Henry. Make sure to bring my son home in one piece, Miss Swan.”

Henry groaned as he watched Regina storm out of Granny’s. “This sucks,” he sighed and turned to Emma with a disappointed look on his face.

“What?” She asked him, as far as she was concerned she hadn’t done anything wrong.

“Why isn’t my mom your type?” He asked not caring how awkward the topic made Emma feel. He too, had felt a little insulted by her response.

Emma shrugged, “I go for fuckboys and losers.”

“Then you should try something new.”

Emma scoffed, “As if your mom would ever be interested in me.” She looked away after her admission, again not realizing why she had admitted something so private with such little ease. “What the hell is wrong with me today?”

Henry smiled, “Don’t give up yet, Ma.”

Emma looked over at Henry, getting the feeling that he was planning something. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing,” Henry replied and couldn’t help but smile. Despite the small hiccup which had occurred, his plan seemed to be going reasonably well.


	4. Chapter 4

Henry had spent the entire school day wondering how he could fix things between his moms' and he figured that the best thing he could do was to give them some privacy. Adults loved to talk to each other especially over coffee so all that he had to do was arrange this meeting. He knew neither of his moms would arrange it so it was left to him, again, to be the instigator.

“How was school?” Emma asked as she took hold of Henry’s book bag. She had finished work for the day and had planned on spending the rest of the day doing absolutely nothing after she had dropped Henry off at Regina’s house.

Henry looked up at Emma and squinted his eyes due to the bright sunshine, “It was okay.” He answered without the usual excitement that was usually present in his voice.

Emma noticed the unfamiliar sadness in Henry’s voice and looked back at him with concern. “What’s up kid?”

“Nothing,” Henry sighed, making sure that he had gained Emma’s full attention before he started to speak again.

“It must be something; usually you’re racing me towards the tree at this point in the journey.”

Henry stopped walking and Emma instinctively stopped beside him. “You need to say sorry to Mom.” He told her bluntly and she really did. He could tell how upset his mom had been after the previous day’s encounter.

Emma frowned, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” She looked away, realizing that she was coming across childish but not being able to do anything about it because it seemed that she still was experiencing problems when it came to lying.

“Miss Blanchard always told us that we have to apologize when we hurt someone’s feelings.”

Emma raised her eyebrows; she had no idea that what she had said to Regina had upset her. In fact, she had assumed that Regina would have brushed off her comments about her not being her type but it seemed that she had been wrong. “I hurt your mom’s feelings?”

Henry nodded, “Yes, yesterday at Granny’s.”

“Oh,” was all that Emma managed to vocalize as she wondered just how much she had upset Regina.

“So you will apologize?” Henry asked once again, beginning to lose his patience.

Emma sighed, it seemed that she would have to be the bigger person and make the first move with Regina. “Okay, sure. If that’ll make you feel better, kid.”

The remainder of the short journey was filled with a much lighter topic of conversation and Emma had started to tease Henry about one of the girls in his class whose name he kept mentioning.  She couldn’t help but feel a little nervous about having to apologize to Regina but she had no idea why she was feeling that way. They were just reaching the gateway to the house when Henry halted and hugged a confused Emma. “I’m gonna go play soccer with Nick now, bye Ma!” He let go of Emma and ran away in the opposite direction before he had to explain anything further to her.

“Kid?” Emma yelled after him and sighed once she realized that she wasn’t about to receive any kind of explanation whatsoever. She walked up Regina’s driveway; she might as well get this apology over and done with.

Regina looked up from her paperwork at the sound of the doorbell chiming. She wasn’t expecting anybody since Henry was out with his friends and it was hardly as if she was the most popular person in town. She walked over to the door and was met with her son’s other mother. “Emma, I didn’t expect to see you on my doorstep.”

“Henry is out with one of his friends.” She responded and handed Henry’s rucksack over to Regina who placed it on the side table.

“I know, he made plans last week to do so.”

“And you never told me?” Emma asked, knowing that anything which concerned Henry would not have simply slipped from Regina’s mind.

Regina shrugged her shoulders, “I thought it would be more fun to have you waste your time.”

Emma scoffed and placed a hand on hip, trying to keep her composure. She had come here to apologize to Regina and not to start yet another argument. “Nice. Look, Regina, we need to talk.”

Regina considered this for a moment before opening the door a little wider. “I suppose you should come in then.” She didn’t know exactly why she had agreed to this talk and she hoped that she wouldn’t end up regretting it. Regina had led the way into the kitchen and Emma had taken the seat at the table which Henry so often sat in. Regina had remained standing and it had intimidated Emma at first despite the more relaxed clothing that the Mayor was wearing on her day off of work.

Emma wasn’t the best with words and she didn’t really know how best to word her apology but for once her runaway mouth seemed to be working in her favor. “I’m sorry if I offended you yesterday. Henry seemed pretty upset about it.” She offered a small smile and hoped that Regina would be able to see how genuine she was being with her.

Regina raised her eyebrow ever so slightly, she hadn’t expected an apology to pass Emma’s lips, in fact, she had been expecting anything but. “It seems he’s quite invested in our relationship.” Regina shrugged and tried to act nonchalant about it but really, she was thrilled that Emma had made the effort to apologize to her, not many people did. “I suppose I accept your apology.”

There had been a brief silence while Regina had brewed some coffee and Emma had been wondering how best to play her next move. Regina had soon joined her at the table and each of them remained awkwardly quiet and staring into their own coffee cups. Regina was the first to make eye contact, “I owe you an apology too.” She said and tried to ease the tension in the room by offering Emma a smile.

Emma returned the smile, grateful that Regina had accepted the olive branch which she had provided her with. “It’s cool. You were kinda right anyway.”

“Not just that,” she paused and her head was telling her to be quiet but her mouth had other ideas. “I wasn’t apologizing for yesterday. I was apologizing for everything that had happened prior to yesterday.”

Emma tilted her head to the side, “What do you mean?”

Regina sighed; of course, Emma would require an explanation which meant that she would have to tell her things that she hadn’t told anybody else before. “I know at times I may seem quite cold to you but I have Henry’s best interests at heart. I suppose I was a little hostile towards you because I was worried that you might want to take Henry away from me.” She looked away upon her admission, feeling horribly vulnerable in front of the blonde, who up until this point she had only ever shared light chitchat with.

“Regina, I would never take him away from you. You’re his mom, he loves you.” Emma found herself involuntarily staring at Regina and for the first time she saw her as a human and not some crazy, rule-making robot. It was weird but also nice to see this side of her, maybe Regina was a real person after all.

Regina let out a deep breath which she was unaware that she had been holding. Strangely, she wasn’t feeling as exposed as she thought she was going to be. Emma didn’t appear to be judging her and she certainly wasn’t laughing at her which was definitely a good sign. She took another long breath before continuing to confess her inner turmoil. “He’s all I have, the only really wonderful thing in my life. When you came to town I was so terrified that I would lose him.”

Emma had always acted on her instincts and so she did just that and reached her hand across the table placing it on top of Regina’s. She looked her in the eye, “I would never separate you and Henry. You can trust me on that, ‘cause for some reason, I can’t lie anymore.” She laughed airily even though the whole inability to lie thing was beginning to freak her out.

Regina’s eyes remained on Emma’s hand which was now sitting comfortably on top of hers and showed no signs of moving. “That means a lot.” She replied and for some reason, she fully believed everything that Emma had told her. She frowned for a moment, considering the other point which Emma had said. “You can’t lie?”

Emma knew how insane she sounded, she had already told Mary Margaret the same thing and she had looked at her as if she had grown a second head. “I know, crazy right? Try and get me to lie, I dare you.”

Usually, Regina wouldn’t have played along with this game but she wanted to be sure that Emma really couldn’t lie because if she couldn’t then it meant that she wasn’t alone in whatever the hell it was that was happening to her. “Why were you late to Henry’s birthday party?”

“Crap,” Emma groaned, she had walked completely into that trap. Before she knew it her mouth had taken on a mind of its own. “I spent the night with Graham and he never set an alarm so I woke up late.”

Regina tried to push away that tiny pang of jealousy which hit her upon hearing Emma’s confession but unfortunately, she couldn’t. She swiftly withdrew her hand from Emma’s and tucked it back into her lap. “I knew that you lied to me.”

Emma grimaced and slowly retrieved her hand from Regina’s side of the table. “Yeah, I’m sorry. I didn’t wanna ruin Henry’s party.” She waited until Regina seemed a little less mad before she continued to speak. “But hey, it proves that I can’t lie, right?”

“I suppose so,” Regina took a sip of coffee, if only to keep her mouth occupied. “I can’t lie either.” She stated as she placed her cup gently back down onto the coaster.

“Seriously?” Emma asked with a combination of shock, confusion and excitement in her voice.

Regina nodded, “I thought I was imagining it but if the same thing is happening to you then maybe it is a real problem.”

“So you can’t lie either?” Emma asked once again and this time she was full of nothing but excitement. There were about a million things that she wanted to know about Regina and it seemed that she could finally get some answers.

“Are you and Graham dating?” Regina asked, a little too abruptly for her own liking.

Emma laughed and shook her head, “No. No, definitely not dating.”

“Then what?” Regina asked, again far quicker than she had intended.

Emma shrugged, unsure where this barrage of questions about her personal life had come from. “Just sex mainly but it’s over.”

“Why?”

“Wow, 21 questions, much?” She didn’t want to answer; after all, she hadn’t even told Mary Margaret the real reason why she and Graham had called off their arrangement but of course she couldn’t lie and so she had to tell Regina the whole truth. “Ugh, he wanted something more but I’m not into him like that. I was never into him like that.”

Regina smiled and then quickly wiped that smile from her face. She was worried about what could come out of her mouth next so she thought it would be best to change the subject altogether. “Why do you think we can’t lie anymore?”

Emma shrugged, she hadn’t really thought about it. “Maybe someone cast a spell on us?”

Regina hadn’t expected that answer but then, did she ever really know what was going to come out of Emma’s mouth? “What?”

“Or maybe it’s a curse?” Emma glanced around the room for emphasis and then kept her eyes focused on the woman sitting across the table from her. “Who have you pissed off recently?”

Regina chuckled far too affectionately than she usually would. “You and Henry share the same wild imagination.”

“Really? Well, what do you think it is then smarty pants?” Emma teased and hoped that she hadn’t gone too far in terms of this friendly banter which they seemed to have adopted between them.

Regina rolled her eyes at the name that Emma had used and then sighed as she realized that she had no alternative suggestion to add. “I have no idea but there must be some logical reasoning behind all of this.”

“Aliens,” Emma said with a grin and was surprised at how easy it was to talk to Regina. Usually, they would be at each other’s throats after spending so long in each other’s company.

Regina chuckled again and shook her head. “It’s definitely not aliens, dear.”

Emma raised her eyebrows upon hearing the nickname which she usually saved for Henry. She was really starting to like this Regina. “That’s what they want you to think.”

Regina rolled her eyes, dismissing Emma’s alien theory. “Whatever it is I hope things return to normal soon, I have a big meeting on Wednesday which I will definitely need the skill of lying for.”

Emma took a sip of coffee, “The town meeting. Shit, I haven’t even started preparing what I’m gonna say for that yet.”

“Oh, really?” Regina asked, she had made a point of asking Emma to talk on behalf of the Sheriff’s office. She had wanted Emma to make an idiot of herself in front of the entire town but at this rate, it seemed that she wouldn’t be the only one doing so.

Emma shrugged, “You know what, I reckon we’ll be fine by Wednesday. We just need to get some sleep, have a long bath, and eat some chocolate.”

“I really do hope you’re right.” Regina took another sip of her coffee and stared ahead of her while Emma remained lost in thought. She could only hope that things would be back to normal sooner rather than later.


	5. Chapter 5

Regina had just received a call from Henry inviting both her and Emma to Granny’s where he was having pancakes with Mary Margaret and David. Regina had found this request particularly unusual because Henry shouldn’t have known that Emma was still at the house and, also, because Henry would never willingly spend time with his teacher and her boyfriend. It all seemed very peculiar and she was determined to find out what was going on with Henry. Emma had, of course, jumped at the chance of getting food and had practically raced out of the door with Regina trailing behind her. She, too, had found it weird that Henry was hanging out with Mary Margaret and David but she hadn’t dwelled on it too much, he was safe and that was all that mattered.

Henry was sitting smugly with a giant plate of pancakes sat in front of him that Mary Margaret had bought for him. He took a forkful of food and glanced up at the door when he heard it open. Emma walked in closely followed by Regina and they made their way to his booth instantaneously.

“Henry, why aren’t you with Nick?” Regina asked him as soon as she had reached the booth; she gave him a quick glance over to make sure that he wasn’t harmed before continuing to stare at him waiting for an answer.

Henry swallowed and the close proximity between the two of his mothers’ did not go unnoticed to him. “Nick had to leave early and you always told me to go to Granny’s as it was a safe place. I saw Miss Blanchard here and she invited me over to sit with her and David.”

Mary Margaret nodded in agreement with Henry’s explanation. “I thought it would be best to keep Henry company until you arrived, Regina.”

Regina glanced over at Mary Margaret, who was snuggled up closely to David, she was thankful that she had been there. “Thank you.” She managed to utter out before reverting her attention back to her son.

Mary Margaret and David excused themselves moments later and left Henry with his parents. Henry was already smiling at them; it had been a while since he had gotten to spend some time with both of his moms together and this time there was an added bonus of them not squabbling with one another.

Emma had spent the majority of the time staring at Henry’s pancakes and was practically salivating when the smell of the treats hit her. “Well, it would be rude of us not to join you for something to eat, scoot up kid.” She nudged his side and sat down in the booth beside him while Regina sat down opposite them.

Henry looked between his two moms with a curious but happy smirk on his face. Emma had just grabbed his fork and had dug into his pile of pancakes as if she hadn’t eaten in days and Regina was looking back at her. She wasn’t wearing her trademark frown that she usually wore when in contact with Emma though. Instead, she was looking at her in awe and with something else which Henry couldn’t quite put his finger on just yet.

He assumed that Emma’s apology had gone down well because they both seemed more relaxed around one another than he had ever seen them before. Regina caught his eye and smiled at him and he returned her affection with a wide grin of his own. “So moms, are you friends now?” Henry asked and both of them jumped and looked around at him in seconds.

Emma was postponed from answering due to having a mouthful of pancake so it was left to Regina to respond. She looked at Emma who was chewing her food excessively, probably in an attempt to avoid the question. She looked back at her smiling son and hoped that he would accept her answer. Although she no longer despised Emma, she certainly wouldn’t say that she was her best friend either. “I suppose you could say that Emma and I have formed something resembling a friendship.”

Henry’s face lit up and he looked over at Emma who was still chewing but was also nodding in agreement. “I knew it; I knew you guys would be friends.” He wanted to tell his mothers’ how he had made a wish on his birthday and how it had come true but at the same time, he didn’t want them to think that his wish was the only reason for why they had become closer. He was also worried that he would get into trouble for meddling in other people’s lives, something that he knew Regina would not tolerate. He did, however, want to make the most of his moms’ honesty and as they seemed to be in a reasonably good mood he thought that it would be the perfect time to have a little fun with them.

Henry was about to open his mouth to ask a question when Emma beat him to it. “Do you wanna bite, Regina?” She waved a forkful of pancake into her direction and a teasing smile was beginning to grow on her face. “I can see you staring.”

Regina quickly shifted her gaze from Emma’s plate and to a far less appetizing spot on the far wall of the diner. “I haven’t eaten pancakes since I was a child.” She replied and completely ignored Emma’s playful gesture.

Emma, at that point, had decided that bantering with Regina in this way was much more fun than arguing with her and she had a feeling that Regina may also be feeling the same way. She brought her current forkful to her lips, “Did you like them when you were a kid?” She asked before taking a bite and licking her lips solely to emphasize how good they tasted to Regina.

“Well, yes but…” Regina allowed her sentence to wander off and for some reason she found herself being drawn to the actions that Emma’s mouth was making.

Emma enthusiastically stabbed the fork into another piece of pancake, “Then you probably still would now.”

“Ma’s right. They are delicious.” Henry chimed in and within seconds was watching Regina, dying to know whether she would take Emma’s bait or not.

“You know you want to, Regina.” Emma grinned and repeated her previous action of waving around a forkful of pancake under Regina’s nose.

Regina rolled her eyes, “Fine, give me the damn fork.” She snatched the fork from Emma and placed the small piece of pancake into her mouth before Emma could say another word. She closed her eyes as soon as the treat hit her taste buds and released an unexpected moan.

Emma froze for a moment as the sound passed from Regina’s lips. She dropped her eyes to the shiny surface of the table and avoided looking at Regina until she had ceased with the moaning. Emma cleared her throat, trying her best to rid herself of any inappropriate thoughts which had previously filled her head. “So, what do you think?”

“So good,” Regina replied upon swallowing the food. She was slowly beginning to embrace this whole ‘telling the truth’ thing but only whilst she was around Henry and Emma, given that she was also facing the same predicament.

Emma turned to Henry triumphantly and gave him a high five. “I told you. You should listen to me more, shouldn’t she kid?”

Henry nodded jubilantly, ecstatic that his moms were getting on so well. “Yeah, Ma knows a lot about good food. But so do you, Mom. You guys should just listen to each other more.”

“I would listen to your mom more if she wasn’t so anal about every little thing.” Emma averted her eyes once again; she definitely used the wrong word in that sentence. She had expected Regina to protest against her claim but was instead met with an unusual silence from the other woman. “You just need to have more fun, ya know?” She added, attempting to regain their friendly conversation.

Regina watched closely as Emma’s eyes shot from the table and then to her and then back to the table once again. “And you think you can show me ‘fun’?” She wondered as Emma once again looked back at her.

Emma paused and her eyes widened slightly which she hoped Regina didn’t notice. Was Regina flirting with her? She glanced back over at the brunette who was staring at her, waiting expectantly for her to answer. “You have no idea.” She held Regina’s stare and there was a brief silence between the two of them as each of them tried to work out what exactly it was that was happening between them.

Henry had been watching this interaction extremely closely and was starting to think that maybe his moms were getting on a little too well. He watched them as neither one of them said a word and instead just stared at one another. They were acting weird. He thought back to the time in class when David had come in to visit Miss Blanchard, they too, had been doing that weird staring thing that his moms were currently doing. His smile grew as he thought about the possibility of his two parents actually falling in love with one another and getting their own happily ever after which they both so badly deserved.

He suspected that Emma had no idea about Regina’s current lack of dating life and he also knew that his mom would never actively share such details with Emma so it would be up to him to hurry that conversation along and make sure that Emma knew that Regina was very much single. “Mom, I saw Robin in town earlier with Marian and the baby.” He announced to the table and received two surprised expressions in response.

“I hope that you ignored him, dear.” Regina arched a brow, wondering why on earth Henry had even mentioned that he had run into Robin. She, herself hadn’t even thought about him for quite some time.

“He is your _ex_ -boyfriend; I didn’t want to talk to your _ex_ -boyfriend.” He replied and made sure to put extra emphasis on the word ‘ex’ just so that Emma would pick up on the point.

Emma had only spoken to Robin a handful of times since her arrival in Storybrooke. She had been called to his house once due to a small fire which had been started in the woods, it turned out that he had not correctly extinguished his campfire. She frowned slightly; she couldn’t exactly see Regina dating such a man, “You dated Robin?”

Regina nodded, not wanting to go into the whole thing, “It was a very brief affair.”

“Mom dumped him,” Henry added and sounded a little too happy about that fact.

Emma chuckled at Henry’s response, but her curiosity was piqued and she wanted to know all of the details around Regina’s relationship with Robin. “Why did you dump him?” She asked Regina and she could tell that it probably wasn’t something that Regina talked about often because she was looking down at her hands rather than back at her.

“We were very different, he was too outdoorsy.” She shrugged afterward and was thankful that her mouth hadn’t betrayed her as badly as it could have. “The breakup was a long time coming.”

Henry watched as Emma nodded understandingly but he was far from finished. “Mom dated Mal before that until she had to move away.”

“Henry, I don’t think Emma wants a history lesson of who I have and haven’t dated.”

“I do, I mean it’s interesting.” Emma wasn’t even ashamed to admit that because it was interesting learning all about Regina. It had been a while since she had even wanted to learn about somebody’s past but everything about Regina just seemed to fascinate her and she didn’t know exactly why that was. 

Regina slanted an eyebrow, “You think that my dating life is interesting?”

“Yeah, so tell me more about this Mal. Was she hot?” Emma asked excitedly, she had just assumed that Regina was one of those people that never dated anybody and for once she was glad at how wrong she had been.

Henry grinned and nudged Emma’s elbow with his own. “She was blonde like you. Mom likes blondes.”

“Henry!” Regina glared at him; she thought it was supposed to be the parents who embarrassed their kids not the other way around.

Henry looked down, knowing when to stop talking. “What? You do.” He whispered so only Emma, who was still seated closely beside him, could hear.

“That’s good to know,” Emma nodded while taking in that information.

Regina scoffed but was secretly pleased that Emma hadn’t gotten up and ran away from the table upon hearing all that she just had. Could it be that Emma wasn’t as bad as she had first thought?


	6. Chapter 6

Regina had been practicing her lines for the best part of an hour and still, what was written on the page was refusing to come out of her mouth. One of the main attributes of being a good Mayor was to have a good ability to disguise the truth so having to present a meeting without that skill was going to be a challenge. And it was a challenge that she really would rather avoid altogether.

Regina glanced up at the clock and swallowed, it was time. She stepped up to the small podium, the microphone looming in front of her, practically taunting her. She took a deep breath and tried to act as if everything was just fine; maybe she could get through this meeting by telling the bitter truth and not end up being completely hated by everyone in town by the end of it? She looked out at the audience and instantly spotted Emma sitting right at the front and sporting a smug grin, knowing only too well that this meeting would more than likely end in disaster. She cleared her throat and before she had even opened her mouth she could see the anger setting into the local townspeople. She ignored them and continued with her welcome speech which was, luckily for her, rather straightforward and had little need for any lies to be told.

The meeting went generally smoothly, Regina had learned to skip over any topics which involved lying which seemed to be a good move until she realized that the meeting which was scheduled to run for an hour had only lasted for fifteen minutes. That meant that the remainder of the time would be filled with a question and answer section which could possibly be even worse than the meeting itself. Regina had barely finished her sentence when a townsperson stood up from their seat with clenched fists and a noticeably red face. “Where has our tax money gone?” He asked and stared at Regina as if she was a being of pure evil.

The issue resolving taxes was one that Regina had hoped to avoid, not because she was doing anything particularly shady with the tax money but because there were a lot of changes that had needed to be funded internally before any outright changes to the town were to be made. She knew, of course, that the town occupants would not see it that way though. “The money has been used on additional staff at the town hall and we’ve invested some into future developments.”

A woman in the front row shook her head and glared at Regina, “What about the old buildings at the edge of town? They’re a health hazard.”

“And the roads need resurfacing.” The man next to her added.

“And the hospital needs to be bigger.” A third voice echoed.

Regina held up her hand to cease the many voices that were all beginning to chime in with their own opinions on what they wanted the money to be spent on. “There are a lot of changes that need to be made but frankly the tax money would not be able to cover all of them.”

“Are you going to increase our taxes?”

“You can’t do that!” A man shouted angrily and was met with a chorus of cheers.

Regina took a deep breath, trying to remain calm as the situation ahead of her only continued to escalate. “I have not raised any taxes yet.”

“Yet? So you are?”

“That might be an occurrence in the future,” Regina uttered quietly, wishing that she could have postponed this meeting until she had the ability to be able to lie again.

“That ain’t right.” A woman called out and then an uproar of angry grunts and growls were heard from around the room.

Emma had changed from smirking to looking a little worried about Regina’s safety to laughing out loud at the disaster which this meeting had turned into. She caught Regina’s eye and regretted it almost immediately when she saw that familiar spark in her brown orbs.

“How about we call the Sheriff to the stage and ask her how she is handling the increased number of complaints which the police department have been receiving recently.” She stretched her arm out into Emma’s direction and the room turned to look at her.

Emma wanted to sink down into her seat and keep her head down but it was already too late. The man sitting next to her was elbowing her impatiently in the ribs and Regina was staring at her so harshly that she couldn’t even attempt to ignore it. She reluctantly stood up and was met with an echo of coughs and whispers, hardly the applause which she was hoping for. She made her way to the stage and brushed past Regina who was looking a little dazed from the reception that she had just received from her people. That expression was swiftly disguised by a smile as she brushed her lips against Emma’s ear. “If I’m being dragged down then I’m taking you with me.”

“Gee, thanks R’gina.” Emma whispered as Regina sauntered past her. She took the position in front of the microphone and glared at Regina who hurriedly left the stage and went to stand in the wing.

Emma reached the podium and looked out into the sea of already riled up faces who were all staring back at her. She took a deep breath, feeling suddenly nervous; public speaking had never been something that she was good at especially when she had no idea what it was that she was supposed to be talking about. One thing she did know was that there was no way that she wanted to anger these people anymore so she decided to talk about the future events which she knew people were looking forward to. “Okay, hey guys. I guess I’m gonna start by discussing the upcoming events in town and how…”

Unfortunately, the audience had other ideas and she was interrupted before she had even finished her sentence. “Where were you when the fight outside of the Rabbit Hole took place?” An old man shouted from the back of the room.

“I was on my lunch break,” Emma blurted out and regretted it instantly.

“Is your stomach more important than our safety?” A shocked woman holding a baby asked with a shake of her head.

Emma shook her own head in response, “Woah, Regina really did piss ya off, huh?”

A young man who looked no older than twenty-one stood up suddenly and called out loud enough for the entire room to hear. “Why is there no police presence after midnight?”

“This is a very small town, there’s like five of us in the Sheriff’s department. What do you expect us to do?” Emma replied and looked down right after she had finished speaking.

Regina was watching from the safety of the wing, making sure that the curtain from the stage was shadowing her from the audience. She was watching Emma’s behavior, her usual confidence was being weakened with each response and she couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.

“So you’re saying the Sheriff’s department are doing nothing to protect our neighborhood?” The woman holding the baby asked.

“You’re just as bad as Mayor Mills.” A man shouted from the side of the room and scowled before crossing his arms over his chest.

Emma’s head darted between each speaker, her mouth opening, and closing as she tried to get a word in. “I… No...”

“We want change!” The entire back row shouted; a line which they must have rehearsed previously because it was in perfect unison and was met with a loud applause afterward.

“Guys, we have no funds…” Emma tried to rationalize but her words unsurprisingly seemed to backfire on her immediately after she had spoken them.

“You have no money? Where is all our money going?”

“I…Uh…” Emma stuttered and began to panic as the audience only grew more rowdy.

“Where’s Mayor Mills?”

“Get off the stage, Sheriff!” A man yelled as a boot came hurtling on to the stage and only scarcely missed hitting Emma’s head.

“You did not just throw a boot at me!” Emma shouted back and swiftly made her way to the side of the stage to shield herself from any other object or item of clothing which may be thrown in her direction.

“Emma, we need to leave, now!” Regina grabbed Emma’s wrist and hastily pulled her off of the stage and back into the wing.

Emma was still watching the madness unfold from over her shoulder, part of her wanting to actually fight half of the town. “What is their problem?”

Regina rolled her eyes, “Do I really need to answer that?” She continued to half drag the distracted Emma around the back of the stage, pushing past anyone that got in their way. “We’re going out the back.”

Emma narrowly avoided being knocked over by the stage manager who was rushing to the forefront of the action to try and calm things down and that was when she realized just how serious things had gotten. “Regina, have we just started a riot?”

Regina halted in front of the fire escape door, the sudden movement causing Emma to stumble and bump into her side which she chose to ignore. “We’re not waiting around to find out.”

Emma didn’t have a chance to respond before Regina had shoved the door open and pushed her way through it. Emma followed and once they were outside she made an instant beeline to her car while Regina noticeably walked in the opposite direction. “You don’t plan on outrunning them do you?” Emma asked with laughter in her voice.

Regina sighed, Emma was right. She had no chance of getting away from there on foot and her own car was sitting safely in her garage at home. “You do have insurance on that thing, don’t you?”

“I thought insurance was optional.” Emma shrugged and opened the door to her car. “Are you coming or not?”

Regina stared at her completely flabbergasted for a couple of moments before she heard the intensifying uproar from inside. “Well, I suppose dying in that car would be marginally better than being trampled on by that angry mob.” She shuffled over to the car and cautiously opened the door, half expecting it to come off of its hinges in her hand.

Emma was finding the whole situation hysterical and if it wasn’t for the situation which they were in she would have definitely spent more time teasing Regina with tales of her car. “Buckle up; we’re getting out of here.” Emma glanced in her rearview mirror before turning the car around and putting her foot on the gas.

“Hopefully in one piece,” Regina added and she could see a crowd of people exiting out of the back door just as Emma turned the corner to leave the parking lot. It was safe to say that that meeting had been anything but a success.


	7. Chapter 7

Emma’s car clanked for the second time in the space of about five minutes. Regina tutted yet again and received an agitated eye roll from Emma who was seated beside her. “Have you ever thought about upgrading this tin can?” Regina asked and gripped her fingernails even harder into the seat than she had done previously.

Emma frowned with a shake of the head. She would always remain loyal to her little bug despite the many attempts that Regina made of trying to get her to get a new car. “I’m never getting rid of Lightning Bug so you’re just gonna have to get used to him.”

Regina smiled to herself upon finding out that little tidbit of information. “You named your car Lightning Bug?”

“Yeah, what’s your car called?” She glanced over to Regina who was staring intently at the dashboard in front of her.

Regina sighed, knowing it was hopeless to even attempt to lie, “Panther.”

Emma grinned, she knew that Regina was just as much of a dork as she was, deep down anyway. “You’ll have to take me for a ride in Panther some time.”

Regina cocked an eyebrow, “We’ll see.”

The next ten minutes were filled with mostly silence, Emma had fiddled with the car radio but it still showed no signs of actually working so she had given up shortly afterward. Regina was staring absentmindedly out of the window, watching intently as the blur of greens and browns whizzed past her. “How am I going to fix this?” She asked, more to herself than to Emma.

Emma looked over to Regina; she hadn’t thought much about the implication of what had happened, her mind only focused on the here and now of it. “People will come to their senses soon enough. We haven’t really done anything wrong and the meeting wasn’t really that bad. I mean, it totally coulda been worse.”

“How? We literally got chased out of town by a baying mob, _how_ could that meeting have gone any worse?”

“Well for starters, you could’ve been on your own and not have had me to come and save you.”

Regina snorted and turned to Emma with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, so you’re my hero now?”

“You could say that,” Emma shrugged, she basically had saved Regina.

“I believe I was the one who saved you from that flying piece of questionable footwear.” 

Emma laughed and took her eyes off of the road to send Regina a serious look. “Thank you for saving me from a possible concussion. And to show you how thankful I am I’m bringing you here.” She turned her head back to the road and found a parking spot just on the edge of the wooded scrubland.

“The woods?” Regina asked, thoroughly underwhelmed at the choice of ‘hiding place’ that Emma had chosen for them.

“Always such a pessimist. Come on, I wanna show you something.” Emma shook her head before finding a burst of energy and leaping out of her car. Regina followed her reluctantly, still unexcited by the whole situation.

They had been walking for about five minutes before Emma came to a halt and Regina, who was trailing behind her, let out a sigh of relief. Her choice of black stilettos was really not cooperating with the muddy terrain of the woods. Emma waited until Regina had caught up with her before a smile lit up her face as she watched Regina take in the beauty of the secret wooded spot which she had recently grown so fond of.

Regina hadn’t known what to expect but what she saw in front of her was certainly a surprise. “It’s beautiful.” Regina let out a small gasp as she took in the landscape of the whole town in the distance. Everything looked so small from where she was standing and it was hard to even imagine the chaos which she had left the town in. There was a small break in the trees which hid a small stream which was topped with a small waterfall and Emma held out her hand to help Regina clamber over the rocks to reach the watery view.

Regina was going to protest but she knew that she would likely end up on her face if she attempted to climb over the rocks by herself so instead she clasped on to Emma’s hand and followed her steps carefully. “How chivalrous,” Regina said under her breath and Emma grinned to herself as she heard the comment.

Emma led the way to her favorite sitting rock which allowed them to get a view of both the town from one direction and the waterfall from the other. She waited until Regina had sat down beside her before letting out a deep, calming breath. “You’re impressed, admit it.”

Regina smiled as she took in the serene beauty around her, “I’m impressed.” She looked over her shoulder at the tiny dots which resembled her beloved town. “Tell me that everything is going to return to normal.”

Emma followed Regina’s gaze and noted the sadness in her voice. “That depends what you mean by normal.” She paused and waited until Regina was looking at her before she continued. “The town will probably return to normal in a week or so, I don’t know if we will ever be able to lie like we used to again but I do know that our relationship won’t be able to go back to normal.”

Regina swallowed, “Do you want our relationship to go back to what it was?”

“No,” Emma lowered her eyes to Regina’s lips but raised them back to eye level almost immediately after. “I like whatever it is at now. I hate arguing with you, Regina. I hate seeing Henry upset, I hate seeing you upset.”

Regina couldn’t hold back her smile; she really had read Emma wrongly for all of those past months. “I like it too.” She replied so quietly that Emma could barely hear her. “I’m sorry I almost got you killed by a dirty boot,” she uttered and looked over to the glistening water in front of her to try and hold in her impending laughter.

Emma grinned and it quickly turned into a raucous laugh. “I’m sorry that I purposely drove over potholes just so I could see you do that cute little annoyed frown that you always do.”

“My what?” 

“Come on; don’t make me say it again.” Emma giggled and then bit her lip because she was embarrassed that that sound had even passed her lips.

“Now who’s being cute?” Regina nudged her elbow against Emma’s and she heard a small groan come from the blonde who was now staring at the ground to avoid any further embarrassment. “You’re a terrible liar by the way. Not once did I believe a single one of your lies.”

Emma looked up to meet a particularly smug looking Regina. “See, normally I would try and prove you wrong but y’know.” Emma pointed at her lips and shrugged animatedly which caused Regina to chuckle and shake her head.

“What made you want to move here? You could have easily stayed where you were and visited Henry. Why did you stay in Storybrooke?” Regina asked, it was a question which had kept her up many nights especially when Emma had first moved to town.

Emma thought for a minute, the decision itself had been spur of the moment but even when she and Regina were at their worst stage in fighting, she had still not even thought about going back to Boston. “I guess that I had nothing to lose and everything to stay for.”

Regina considered that, she hadn’t been one to move around much but she knew that if she were to move it would take months of planning, there was no way that she could just spontaneously leave. “You never speak about your past.”

“You’ve literally never asked me.” Emma countered back with a slight raise of her right eyebrow.

“Tell me about it,” Regina pushed but made sure that her voice was soft so as not to be too invasive.

Emma nibbled on the inside of her cheek; the past was still a sore subject for her. She didn’t know where to start or how much detail she should go into so instead she just spoke and hoped that what came out would at least make some kind of sense. “Um, okay. I grew up in the foster system so I moved around quite a bit. When I was a teenager I got into some trouble which meant that I moved around even more. I settled in Boston when I was eighteen and that’s when Henry came along. I was still a kid myself, I didn’t wanna give him up but I didn’t have a job and I was living on my friend's floor. I had to do what was best for him.”

Regina could hear the breaking in Emma’s voice and she slipped her hand gently into Emma’s who only squeezed affectionately as soon as the contact was made. “It’s okay; you did the right thing at the time. Henry understands that.”

Emma regained her composure before continuing to speak but was sure to keep her hand tightly clasped within Regina’s. “Yeah, I know. It’s just hard remembering it all. Anyway, I got myself a job and an apartment but it was never anything permanent and I certainly had no real reason to even stay in Boston. Henry found me at the perfect time.”

Regina nodded each missing piece of the Emma puzzle was slowly falling into place. “That certainly explains a lot.”

“Are you glad that I stuck around?” Emma asked with a cheeky glint in her eye, knowing that Regina would have to answer that question truthfully.

A smile hit Regina before she was even aware of it. “I am.” She replied and held her eye contact with the blonde, “I really am.”

“Nice to know,” Emma’s smile widened and a comfortable silence swept over them as they both turned to the waterfall in front of them and escaped into the nature surrounding them. Emma was the first to break the silence this time, her curiosity getting the best of her. “What about you?” She asked, “Henry told me that your parents are loaded, how come you never mention them?”

“My parents moved to France, I still keep in contact with them, my father, mostly. I believe they’re coming over for Christmas this year so you’ll more than likely get to meet them.”

“Was that an invitation to spend Christmas with you?” Emma asked, she had exactly zero plans for the holiday, mainly due to it being two months away. 

Regina smiled with a slight nod of the head. “Henry and I would both enjoy your company.”

“It definitely beats playing third wheel to Mary Margaret and David.” Emma grinned, her favorite holiday promised to be even greater this year if she got to spend it with Henry and Regina.

“It’s a date then.” Regina confirmed and turned back to watch the sun rays bouncing off of the peaceful water in front of her.

“Mhm, yeah. A date.” Emma tossed the word around in her head for a moment; did Regina mean a date-date? She was just about to ask her when the loud, shrill chiming of Regina’s cell phone startled the both of them.

Regina unwound her hand from Emma’s and pulled the ringing phone from the pocket of her blazer noting the caller ID immediately. “It’s Henry.” She frowned in confusion, why was he calling her when he should be in school?


	8. Chapter 8

“Moms!” Henry shouted when he heard the turning of the door handle and jumped up from his seat at the kitchen table to race toward the back door.

Regina made short work of unlocking the door and bundling through it, wrapping her arms around Henry as soon as he reached her. “Henry, what’s going on? Why aren’t you at school? How did you get inside without a key?” Emma closed the door behind Regina and joined her in making sure that Henry was okay and still breathing. She rested her hand gently on Henry’s head which was still being snuggled by Regina who was continuing to ask questions about what had happened to their son.

“Regina, Emma, there you are.” Mary Margaret stood up from her chair as Emma and Regina broke away from Henry and walked into the kitchen followed by their worried looking son.

“Mary Margaret.” Regina greeted her with a smile and a raised eyebrow, wondering why it was that she was in her kitchen for.

Emma beat Regina to her next question and blurted out what was on both of their minds. “What’s happened?”

Mary Margaret held out her hands to calm down Emma who was looking at her with eyes wilder than usual. “Well, the news of the riots seemed to spread across the town pretty fast. The school thought it would be best to send the children home.” She said and looked between each of them before continuing. “It was noted that you two were um, let’s say, in the midst of the chaos, so we thought it would be best to escort Henry home rather than asking you to collect him from school.”

“I used the key which you hide under the doormat,” Henry interjected before returning to staring at his fingernails rather than having to look at his mothers.

Regina nodded; she fully understood why it would have been safer for Mary Margaret to drop Henry off home rather than having she and Emma collect him, seeing as they were currently the two biggest villains of the town. “That was probably a wise choice.”

“Thanks, I owe you.” Emma pulled Mary Margaret into a hug, genuinely grateful that she had returned Henry to them safely. She turned round to see Regina who had just placed her hand affectionately on Henry’s shoulder. “Are the riots really that bad?” She asked, hoping that by some kind of miracle the riots would have calmed down and everyone would have just returned home.

Henry nodded sadly in response to Emma’s question and looked up at Regina and then over to Emma. “Yeah, people are saying really mean things about you guys.”

“They’re congregated outside the town hall at the moment. You need to find a way to fix things.” Mary Margaret said firmly and looked at the two women.

Henry’s eyes averted to the ground as he began to feel guiltier than ever for what had happened. “I’m going to go start my homework so you guys can think of a plan.” He said glumly and scuttled upstairs to his bedroom to begin to think of a plan for himself on just how he could get his moms out of their predicament.

Mary Margaret watched as Henry ran upstairs before making her own excuse to leave. “I should be going too; hopefully you’ll have sorted this out by tomorrow.” She headed for the exit, assuring Regina that she would be more than capable of finding her way to the front door herself. She planned on staying out of the drama as much as possible; the last thing that she wanted was for the town to take a disliking to her as well.

Emma sighed and threw her hands up in the air once she heard the front door close signaling that Mary Margaret had left. “Ugh, why are people in this town so lame? Why can’t they just bitch about us behind our back instead of starting a damn riot?” She kicked out her foot but stopped herself before she kicked the chair knowing that Regina would more than likely scorn her for the action.

Regina raised an eyebrow at Emma’s behavior and made her way across the room to take a seat at the table. “I told you things were bad.”

“Yeah, well now we gotta fix it,” Emma stated and followed Regina to the table, taking a seat opposite her. “For Henry’s sake, he’ll end up being target number one otherwise.”

Regina nodded, there was no way that she was about to let that happen. “You’re right; we’re going to get to the bottom of this.”

* * *

Henry had been sitting on the end of his bed for the past few minutes feeling completely helpless and totally guilt-ridden. He wanted to tell his moms, he knew that he needed to but he doubted that they would know what to do. He nibbled on his bottom lip as he thought to himself what the best way to get answers would be. When he tracked down Emma he had relied on the internet but the computer was downstairs and in very clear sight of his moms. “The library!” He grinned from ear to ear; the library had everything, books, computers and the smartest librarian that he knew.

He cautiously slipped out of his bedroom door and crept down the stairs making sure to be as quiet as he possibly could. He had, regrettably, sneaked out of the house a few times before; back when Regina had rarely let him see Emma and he had to make his own way to see her himself. He heard voices in the kitchen so made sure to avoid that area of the house and hurriedly crept to the front door, tucking the spare key safely in his pocket. He gave a quick glance toward the kitchen and was pleased to hear that a conversation was still mid-flow. He opened the door and tiptoed out, closing the door slowly and as quietly as possible behind him.

Henry made his way across town, dodging the occasional shouting townsperson and anyone else who looked remotely angry. He breathed a short sigh of relief when he reached the library. Thankfully it was empty and the only person that was inside was the person who he was seeking to find. Belle French, the town’s librarian looked up from her desk when she heard the sudden intrusion. “Henry, what are you doing here?” She asked with a friendly smile wondering what it was that he was doing there all alone when all hell seemed to be breaking loose outside.

Henry sent Belle a small smile, wondering whether this was a good idea or not. “Hi, Belle. Can I ask you something?” He asked and as expected Belle nodded in response. She led the way to the children’s section and to the bean bag chairs which she knew Henry was particularly fond of. She let him sit down and waited for quite some time before she prompted him to share his burdens. Henry had grown increasingly quiet and once again he was having doubts about whether sharing his problems was the best option for him.

Belle sat down beside him and smiled, sensing that Henry was seriously worried about something. “Whatever it is Henry, I’m sure it isn’t as bad as what you think it is. Most problems can be solved, what is it that seems to be getting you so down?”

Henry looked at Belle, he knew that she was the person who was most likely to have an answer; she worked in a library full of answers after all. “Do you promise that you won’t tell my moms?” He asked, he still wanted to work up the courage to tell them himself.

Belle paused, not knowing how best to answer that question. “If you’re in any danger Henry then I have to let your parents know.”

Henry shook his head, “I’m not in danger, I promise.” He answered quickly but then was back to being silent once again. Belle opened her mouth to once again try and get Henry to talk but just as she was about to say something he let out an overly dramatic sigh. “I did something really bad.” He admitted and kept his head bowed to the ground as his guilt continued to wash over him.

“What did you do, Henry?” Belle asked him softly, not wanting him to close up when he was becoming so close to telling her the truth.

Henry glanced over to Belle nervously, he was beginning to hear the noise from the protesters outside and he felt even guiltier with every cry that he heard. “I made a wish on my birthday and it came true. And now everything is going wrong.”

Belle frowned slightly, not fully believing that a wish that Henry had made on his birthday had come true but she played along anyway, eager to find out just what his wish had been. “What did you wish for?”

“I wished for my moms to stop lying. It was so cool at first but then everything changed. Now the whole town hates Mom and Ma and it’s all my fault!” Henry choked back a sob and buried his head in his lap.

Belle wrapped a comforting arm around Henry’s shoulders while she took in the information which she had just received. “This isn’t your fault, Henry. It would have been impossible for you to know that things would work out like this. Are you sure that your wish came true?”

Henry nodded and swiped his eyes with the back of his hands to wipe away any tears which had started to fall. “Yes. They can’t lie!”

Belle thought for a moment while Henry sniffed and looked at her with big, hopeful eyes waiting for her to give him an answer to his problem. This was certainly a unique situation and she knew that she would have to handle it with as much sensitivity as she could so as not to upset Henry any further. She smiled as she thought of the perfect solution, and really it was the only one that could possibly make any sense given the situation. “There is only one way to break any curse or spell or to reverse a wish.”

Henry sat up a little straighter, his interest piqued. “What is it?”

“True love’s kiss.” Belle stated simply, it was, after all, the answer to nearly every problem experienced in a fairy tale.

Henry tilted his head to the side and frowned, “Are you sure there is no other way?” He was almost positive that Emma and Regina would be each other’s true love’s kiss but he doubted that they were at the ‘kissing’ stage in their relationship just yet.

Belle nodded, having already run out of any other possible solutions. She made a mental note to pay Emma a visit the next day to see just what was going on. “It has to be true love’s kiss.”

Henry thanked Belle for her advice and stood up from the bean bag chair, this option was certainly better than no option. All he needed to do now was think of a way to get his mothers to share a kiss…


	9. Chapter 9

“Are you sure this is gonna work? The last thing I want is another boot being flung at my head.” Emma said as she glanced outside Regina’s living room window at the crowd who seemed to migrate even closer to them.

Regina coated her lips with another layer of red lipstick. “It’s our only option, just let me do most of the talking. Your mouth has already gotten us both into enough trouble as it is.”

“Your mouth wasn’t much better, Madam Mayor.” Emma backed away from the window and went to join Regina in the hallway. “Let’s get this over with.”

Regina placed her lipstick on the side table and turned to Emma who had just joined her. “How do I look?”

“Stunning,” Emma answered and then slammed her palm against her forehead, forgetting for a split second that she couldn’t lie. Regina just smiled smugly in response before leading the way to the front door.

Regina regretted opening the door almost as soon as she did so, with a loud chorus of jeers attacking her instantly. She hesitated at the door, taking in the angry faces which stood by her front gate all waiting for her to mess up once again so that they could attack her even more viciously. She swallowed and then started to nibble on her lower lip, wanting nothing more than to turn around and return to the safety of her own home.

Emma was behind Regina, so close that their shoulders were practically rubbing against each other. She could sense Regina’s nerves, she felt the way that she had tensed up and she saw the nervous habits which Regina had adopted. She slipped her hand gently into Regina’s, “You got this.” She whispered and quickly retrieved her hand from Regina’s in case anybody else saw the action.

Regina looked over her shoulder and saw Emma smiling encouragingly at her and for the first time, she truly believed that Emma was on her side. “Thank you.” She whispered back and with the departure of Emma’s comforting hand, she took a brave step forward…

* * *

Henry had left the library a couple of minutes ago and he already knew that things were much worse than they had been when he had first arrived because the empty streets from before were now much busier. The closer Henry got to home, the more that sick feeling in his stomach seemed to grow; especially once he saw just where that huge crowd had stopped outside of.

Henry skirted the area around his house and decided it would be safest for him to return inside from the back. The back door was still unlocked from earlier and so it wasn’t hard for him to get back inside unnoticed. He could hear the crowd begin to settle from outside and he made his way to the window to see what it was that was going on.

From the window, he could see his moms addressing the crowd and surprisingly they weren’t being met with any interruptions or spontaneous acts of violence. Henry’s eyes settled on Emma who was watching Regina speak with a smile on her face. Once Regina had finished speaking Emma had started and this time it was Regina who was watching Emma with a growing smile.

A few moments later the crowd began to disperse and Emma and Regina had started a private conversation between themselves. Henry waited impatiently by the door, waiting to congratulate them on whatever it was that they did to manage the townspeople.

“Moms! What happened?” Henry practically screeched as soon as the door was flung open. He stood with his hands in the air and his eyes were wide with astonishment.

Emma shrugged as if she had just calmed down a crying baby rather than an entire population of disgruntled adults. “Oh you know, just worked our magic on them.”

Regina nodded and wrapped her arm around Henry who made no attempt to shrug her off and instead snuggled into her. “Your mother can be surprisingly tactile at times.”

Emma raised an eyebrow at Regina, still not used to seeing her nicer side. She met her eye for a moment and they shared a smile before Emma looked back at Henry. “We basically just told them that their negative attitude was just making things worse. And your mom and I would hold one on one meetings with anyone who wanted one.”

“But only to discuss the most urgent matters,” Regina said and turned up her nose at the very thought of spending countless hours caught up in menial discussion. “I don’t plan on spending all of my free time discussing streetlights and alcohol licenses.”

“I knew you’d make a great team.” Henry smiled as yet another idea popped into his head. “Ma you should stay for dinner to celebrate.” He said to Emma without so much as checking that Regina would agree to this impromptu dinner invitation.

“Sure, if your mom’s cool with that?” Emma asked and looked over to Regina who had surprisingly not already cut in with an immediate excuse as she usually would have done.

Regina seemed to consider the situation for a moment before nodding once and showing the smallest sign of a smile. “You can stay; it’ll be nice for the three of us to have dinner together.”

“Yes!” Henry grinned and ran through to the kitchen to see what it was that Regina had planned for dinner. He sat down as his parents routed through the cupboards, Emma was making herself feel at home and strangely, Regina had not said anything to stop her from doing so.

Henry started to nibble on his thumbnail as he thought about what Belle had told him. His moms had solved the problem themselves and that may have been due to their honesty. Maybe he shouldn’t try and make things return to normal after all? He sighed as he continued to ponder; maybe he should just let this whole situation play out to a natural end. After all, it probably was only a matter of time until his moms really did share a kiss.

Henry had gulped down his dinner, which had turned out to be his favorite; lasagna. He had then raced off to the hallway where he stayed, silently listening into the conversation which his moms were sharing while clearing the dinner table.

“Hey, R’gina.” Emma handed an empty plate to the brunette who placed it into the dishwasher before turning to Emma. “Remember that time when you came to the Sheriff’s office and yelled at me for a whole bunch of random things? Were you really mad about that stuff or were you just taking your anger out on me?” Emma asked, referring to an incident which had happened not so long after Regina had given her the Sheriff’s position.

Regina stood up a little straighter, knowing full well that she couldn’t lie her way out of this one. “I was mad at you. You were new in town and you had your feet up on the desk. That is not how a Sheriff should sit. Besides I’m sure you purposely tried to wind me up, nobody can be that poorly mannered.”

Emma held back her laughter, “I mean sure, most of the time I like to annoy you.”

“Why?”

“I dunno, small towns are boring. It’s fun winding up the hot Mayor. I guess I should stop doing that now that we’re friends though.”

Regina smirked upon hearing Emma’s answer, “Hot Mayor?”

Of everything that she had said, of course, Regina would pick up on that bit. “Oh, come on. You know you’re hot.” Emma countered back and walked over to gather the last remaining plate from the table.

“It’s nice to know that you agree.” Regina smiled and claimed the plate from Emma before placing it in the dishwasher.

Emma rolled her eyes as she was reminded of another past encounter with Regina. “Okay, I have another question. Remember that time when I was at the bar with Mary Margaret and we asked you to join us for a drink. Why didn’t you stay?”

Regina shrugged even though she knew the exact situation that Emma was referring to. It had happened when she and Emma were still participating in the ‘pretend to be nice to one another for Henry’s sake period’. “I’m not a fan of awkward conversation.”

Emma shook her head defiantly; she had planned on getting Regina to like her that night. She was a fun drinker and she and Mary Margaret had planned on seeing the more mellow side to Regina had she have stayed, that was. “It wouldn’t have been awkward. I kinda wanted you to stay.”

Regina saw the disappointment in Emma’s face and couldn’t help but feel a tiny bit guilty for her past actions. Maybe it wouldn’t have been as bad as she had thought. “If you ask me nicely then I might go for a drink with you on another evening. We could leave Mary Margaret at home this time though.”

Emma bit down on her bottom lip in attempts to hide the grin which was threatening to come through but she failed and instead just smiled widely after hearing what Regina had said. “Awesome, she can watch Henry.” She cleared her throat and looked away from Regina to try and regain some of her poise.

“Speaking of Henry, where is he? He ran off awfully quickly, he didn’t even beg me for ice cream.”

“Yeah, I was expecting to see those puppy eyes while he looks longingly at the freezer.” Emma laughed with a shake of her head as she pictured her son making that very face.

A sudden thump was heard from the hallway followed by speedy footsteps racing up the staircase. Regina looked at Emma and they both made their way out into the hallway. “Henry?” Regina called out but was met with nothing other than the sound of Henry’s door being closed.

“Was he spying on us?” Emma asked, not quite believing or understanding why Henry would have been listening into their conversation.

Regina nodded and continued to stare in the direction of Henry’s bedroom, “I think he was but why?”

Emma pondered for a moment and a crazy idea popped into her head which might possibly hold some truth to it. “Hold on, all this lying stuff started the day after Henry’s birthday party, right?”

“Yes, what’s your point?” Regina frowned, wondering where Emma was taking this train of thought.

“Well, what did Henry do at his party?”

“Overdosed on sugar and made a mess of my backyard.”

Emma chuckled and shook her head; surprised that Regina hadn’t already caught on to what it was that she was trying to say. “And he made a wish when he blew out his birthday candles.”

Regina raised a skeptical eyebrow, “You really think that our son wished for us to stop lying and this wish miraculously came true?”

“It sounds ridiculous, I know.” Emma tried to defend herself but none of their situation made any sense so really, her theory wasn’t actually that ludicrous.

“That’s because it is ridiculous.”

Emma sighed and leaned on the hallway wall, “Do you have any better ideas?”

Regina was silent; she had gone through every possibility in her head a thousand times and still couldn’t find out how it was that neither she nor Emma could lie. It did seem awfully coincidental that their lies were both lost after the events of Henry’s birthday party. She took on a more formal tone before turning to Emma, “We should talk to Henry.”


	10. Chapter 10

Henry had spent the last couple of minutes lying on his bed and regretting the fact that he didn’t own an invisibility cloak. He was straining his ears to try and see if he could hear anything that his moms were saying but it had been hopeless, the only thing he could hear was his rapidly beating heartbeat and his nervously, heavy breathing.

“Henry? Can you come downstairs for a moment?” Regina called from the bottom of the staircase. Emma was still leaning on the wall beside her and she was pulling the best ‘stern’ face that she could muster.

Henry purposefully took as long as possible to leave his room and walk downstairs; he knew he wasn’t going to get off lightly for this one.  “You got some explaining to do,” Emma said as soon as Henry came into eye view and she pulled herself away from the wall and stood up straight, mimicking Regina’s regal stance.

Henry let out a sigh as he jogged down the rest of the stairs and sat down on the penultimate step of the staircase. He could feel the burning gazes of his moms’ before he had even looked up at them and once he did he had regretted doing so because they both looked like how his school principal looked when he was having a bad day. “I was gonna tell you, I was but then I saw how you guys were working together and I liked it and…”

“What did you do?” Regina snapped, her impatience getting the better of her.

Henry squirmed upon hearing Regina’s tone and looked over at Emma who was the least scary looking mother at that point in time. “Right before I blew out my candles on my birthday I made a wish. I wished that you both would stop lying and I guess it came true somehow.”

“This really happened because of a wish?” Regina raised an eyebrow, still remaining somewhat skeptical about the whole ‘wish’ explanation.

Emma could sense Regina’s anger threatening to appear and placed a soothing hand on her elbow before adopting a calmer tone of voice to talk to Henry. “How do we return to normal? It’s been almost a week now.”

Henry frowned, knowing that neither of his mothers’ were going to like the answer which he was about to give. He was about to tell them the solution to their problem when he paused and instead decided to ask them the question which he really wanted to know the honest answer to. “There is one way but there’s one thing I need to know first.”

“What is it?” Emma asked quickly before Regina could beat her to it.

Henry couldn’t hide the smile which had crept onto his face and his mood seemed to lighten as he realized he was finally going to know just what was going on with his moms.  “How do you really feel about each other?”

Emma’s eyes instantly dropped to the floor, knowing that her mouth was going to betray her in mere seconds. “I like your mom, a lot actually.”

“I knew it.” Henry beamed and looked over to Regina expectantly, “And Mom how do you feel about Ma?”

“The feeling’s mutual.” Regina said with a smile toward Emma. Surprisingly, it felt like a huge weight had been lifted off of her shoulders now that her feelings were out in the open.

“So are you guys gonna... you know…. Date and stuff?” Henry asked, his curiosity winning over his embarrassment.

Emma leaned forward and whispered in Henry’s ear, “Definitely but I haven’t asked her yet so don’t ruin my game, kid.” Henry grinned and looked over to Regina who was doing her best to ignore his last question.

After a moment of tight lip biting, Regina turned to Henry once again and looked him in the eye. “Henry, how do we fix this?”

Henry took a deep breath and avoided meeting Regina’s eye as he told her the only way to get things to return to normal. “True love’s kiss.”

“That’s insane.” Regina said flatly and turned to Emma who seemed to fully accept Henry’s answer.

“All of this is insane, Regina.” She said matter-of-factly and slipped her hands into Regina’s. “Just kiss me already.”

“How romantic,” Regina sighed. “I suppose it’s worth a try.”

Emma didn’t need to be told twice and she slowly leaned forward so that her forehead touched Regina’s. She had played this moment over and over in her head a thousand times before but she never once thought that it would be happening like this. She closed her eyes and gently placed her lips against Regina’s. Regina was feeling much more nervous than she had suspected that she would have. ‘It’s just a kiss’ she said over in her head and tried not to overthink the situation too much. When her lips touched Emma’s her nerves fizzled away and instead, her heart was racing for a whole different reason entirely.

Henry blushed furiously at the sight of his parents sharing their first kiss and hoped that it worked because it was the only answer that he had. There was a short silence once they had parted and neither Regina nor Emma said anything and instead were just smiling at one another. “Did it work?” Henry asked impatiently and the sound of his voice seemed to bring his mothers’ back to reality.

Emma shrugged, her lips still tingling after the kiss that she had shared with Regina. “I don’t know, try and lie to me.”

Regina couldn’t keep the smile from leaving her face, kissing Emma was a lot more pleasurable than she could have imagined. She cleared her throat and ran a hand through her hair before smirking at Emma’s particularly messy long locks. “Your hair looks nice today.”

Emma folded her arms over her chest smugly. “Yeah, see, now I know you have a crush on me, I don’t know whether that’s a lie or a compliment.”

Regina rolled her eyes, a little embarrassed that Emma knew exactly how she felt about her. “Oh for god’s sake. Emma, you have three noses.”

“And you have ten big mouths.” Emma turned to Henry who was smiling back at her before declaring, “Our lies are back!”

Henry saw the relief sweep other both of his mothers’ and his smile slowly faded as he realized that now that his moms could lie again, things might return to the way that they were before his birthday. Regina picked up on Henry’s silence and rested a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong sweetheart?”

He looked up to Regina who was looking more concerned than anything else. “You guys aren’t gonna go back to lying to each other all the time, are you?”

Emma shook her head defiantly before Henry had even finished what he was saying. “No, your mom knows when I lie now. I’d be an idiot to try and get away with it.”

“She’s right.” Regina agreed and placed her hands on her hips. “I’m sorry that we use to lie so much, I had no idea that it had affected you so badly.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry too, kid. But things are gonna change, honesty is the best policy from now on.”

“Well, the occasional sweet little lie wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Regina added and she looked over at Emma as she did so. They both knew how hard it could be without having the ability to lie, the riot itself being proof enough that honesty perhaps wasn’t always the best policy.

“What’s a sweet little lie?” Henry asked.

Emma hummed before knowing exactly the right scenario to use. “Like hypothetically, if you think that your mom’s lasagna could do with some more cheese but you don’t want to hurt her feelings so you just say it’s perfect anyway. That would be a sweet little lie.”

“You don’t think that my lasagna is perfect?” Regina frowned but her heart wasn’t fully into it and the slant of her lips was about to give away her ‘serious’ tone of voice.

“That was hypothetical. Of course, I think your lasagna is perfect.” Emma backtracked and shot a wink in Henry’s direction once Regina’s gaze had averted away from her.

Henry smiled at his moms as they continued to discuss lasagna and act thoroughly like a married couple. He had no idea what would happen next between them but he had learned that maybe it was better to leave it up to them and them alone. Adults were confusing and adults love lives were even more so. Next year he would definitely wish for something more practical, like a bike or even a skateboard. And who knew? Maybe next year his moms might just be buying him a joint birthday present...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writers and artists spent months creating the fics and art you enjoy - it would mean the world to them if you commented to tell them what you liked! The SQSupernova team is also sponsoring a contest for commenters, and you can find out more [here](http://sqsupernova.tumblr.com/post/177527168129/the-swan-queen-supernova-comments-contest-returns).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [sweet little lies {art}](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15759930) by [misthavens](https://archiveofourown.org/users/misthavens/pseuds/misthavens)




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